Xbox vs PS4: MAJOR new Microsoft Game Pass may see Sony PlayStation owners switch console

Xbox could regain its king of the consoles crown with the help of its new all-in-one Game Pass service, an expert believes.

Karol Severin, who is the lead analyst in gaming for Midia Research, believes the monthly subscription based gaming service could pull players away from the dominant PlayStation 4.

Game Pass launched earlier this week on Thursday.

For £7.99 a month you'll get unlimited access to more than 100 top Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, playable thanks to the console's backwards compatibility feature.

Titles like Halo 5, Gears of War, Fable 3 and Payday 2.

The firm is promising more games every month and you simply have to download them directly to your machine to enjoy both online and offline play without the need for streaming.

Mr Severin reckons the idea is a winner.

"This move is another step in the games industry’s transformation from the economy of ownership to an economy of access," Severin said.

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"As subscription models take the center stage of digital content consumption, it is interesting to observe how individual product nuances allow key players to carve out their own consumer ecosystems and thus, compete with each other, rather than going directly against each other with the same product.

"While PlayStation Now offers the more ‘Netflix-like’ experience by having users streaming its games, Xbox is going a slightly different route, where users download them."

He said the model could well entice PlayStation gamers as subscription models take control of the market and people slowly stop buying physical discs of games.

"The Game Pass proposition will strongly appeal to consumers who are more conscious of their Internet speed and data usage limits," he said.

"The download ability could prove a strong enough differentiator for them to make Xbox their console of choice when purchasing one.

"This mostly concerns markets with lower internet speeds like South America, Middle East and parts of Asia, but also areas of the higher-speed countries like the US and France, where over a sixth of connections have an average internet speed below 4 Mb/s."

He added to MCV: "This difference in product propositions will help shape the evolution of the digital games subscription market, as both platforms grow their subscription user bases.

"Both companies have got a lot riding on how their subscription services evolve.

"As access over ownership becomes an expected standard by consumers, their respective propositions will play an important role in product differentiation and ultimately, have a significant impact on the future sales of consoles."